It happens every spring. I spot my neighbors beautiful pink tulips and yellow jonquils and wish I had something blooming in my stark flowerbed.

But then I realize that you can’t get tulips in the spring unless you’ve planted them months before, and I’m never quite sure when to do that. But I just found out that the time to plant is NOW, so I’m passing along the tip to my fellow flower-loving mamas.

I ran across an article in the most recent isssue of Southern Living that says it’s time to plant bulbs for spring flowers. Author Gene Bussell interviewed Chris Wiesinger, founder of The Southern Bulb Company, to pick up some tips about what kinds of bulbs to plant in the South. Here are a few of his picks listed in the article:

Jonquils –blooms in late February. (pictured at right)

Campernelle — grows in clumps and blooms in late February

Grand Primo Daffodil – creamy white petals with a yellow center. Good multiplier. Blooms in late February.

Snowflake — Looks like little white bells with a green dot on each pteal. Blooms early March. (pictured at right)

Grape Hyacinth — Blue clusters of bell-shaped blooms. Blooms in mid-March.

Golden Dawn Daffodil — Bears multiple flowers in early April.

Lady Jane Tulip – Pink and white blooms. Best planted in en masse. Blooms late March.

Tinka Tulip — Red and pale yellow. Blooms in late March.

Byzantine Gladiolus – Magenta blooms with swordlike foliage. Blooms mid-April. (pictured at right)

Click HERE to go to the Southern Living website to read more about planting bulbs or check out www.southernbulbs.com for more info on the flowers mentioned here. Pick up a copy of the magazine to see some beautiful photos of all the flowers listed so you can decide which ones are your favorites. Planting them together with the kids might be a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Happy gardening!

We mamas LOVE a chance to remodel our homes and make them better. Last year, Americans spent more than $216 billion (yes that says BILLION) on home remodeling, according to a report from the National Association of Home Builders. That same report says that remodeling is expected to outpace new home building in about 10 years.

So if you’re one of the millions of moms who will be remodeling a home sometime soon, there are some things you need to know. And you need to base many of your decisions on whether you’re remodeling for your own benefit and enjoyment and plan to stay in the house indefinitely, or if you’re remodeling with the intention of putting the house on the market for sale. If you’re selling, you’ve got to make decisions based on what gets you the most bang for your buck.

Let’s face it. Women are responsible for 80% of all home-buying decisions. The two rooms that influence us most? Kitchen and master bath.

Start in the kitchen…

Fact: In many cases, the kitchen alone can sell a home. On average, you’ll get a much higher return on investment (ROI) by updating a kitchen with fresh cabinetry and new appliances versus making expensive changes to the other rooms in the house.

To update the kitchen, put a new coat of paint (or stain) on the cabinets and add new hardware. Appliances, on the other hand, should speak for themselves. You can replace appliances (even with some affordable options) and they’ll automatically bring value to the home. When a buyer walks into a home and sees new appliances, she assumes that everything in the home has been updated.

If you’re remodeling your home and plan on living in it for several years, then go with appliances that simplify your life. There are some great options out there for people who love to cook. But if you’re a mom who is constantly on the go, a microwave with speed cook options might be more your style. (There are also built-in microwaves available, like the one shown above.)

The two appliances that will impact your energy efficiency the most are the laundry machines and the refrigerator. The fridge accounts for 5% of your annual energy bill. You’ll pay about twice that amount if your fridge is more than 10 years old.

The more time the fridge door is open, the more energy it takes. If your kitchen remodeling plans include changing the placement of appliances, be sure to put your refrigerator away from any heat sources like ovens and dishwashers.

Some of the most energy efficient refrigerators use the same wattage as a single light bulb. In most households, the fridge is the single biggest energy consuming kitchen appliance. Replacing a fridge bought in 1990 with one of the new “Energy Star� qualified models would save enough energy to light the average house for more than four and a half months. If you really want to live “green,� then consider this: If one in 10 homes used “Energy Star� qualified appliances, it would be like planting 1.7 million new acres of trees.

Before we leave the kitchen, let’s talk dishwashers – those wonderful little machines that have a BIG impact on a mom’s day-to-day life. The new Electrolux dishwashers use 40% less water than they did 10 years ago. They’ve also designed their dishwasher to hold more dishes in each load so you save even more water and energy by not washing as often. (Did we mention this also cuts down on the number of times per week you have to unload and start all over?)

On to the laundry room…

Changing over from top-loading laundry machines to front-loading styles will make the laundry room look more modern and will also help with energy efficiency. The savings will actually pay for the machines over the life of the product. The average family does eight loads of laundry per week, taking a minimum of one hour per load. Going from a top-loading machine to a front-loader can cut the loads in half which saves you a minimum of four hours per week! Electrolux’s newest laundry pair will wash and dry a complete load in 38 minutes. (Wow.)

When you’re choosing a washing machine, opt for a high-efficiency front-loading washer and try to use cold water to wash whenever possible. Electrolux uses an Eco-friendly option available with most Electrolux wash cylces. It reduces the water temperature using up to 53% less energy than a hot water wash.

Although dryers are not manufactured with an energy star rating, your savings will come with the energy efficient washer. If you can’t update your dryer, be sure to use your dryer’s moisture sensor when drying because it’s designed to turn the machine off when the clothes are dry. (When clothes tumble for an extra 20 minutes unnecessarily, they experience more wear and tear.)

Note: Our thanks to Judy Bilyeu of Metro Builders Supply for the great info on remodeling and how it relates to energy efficiency. Click here to visit the Metro Builders Supply website for more info on any of the appliances mentioned here or call them at 479-750-2200.

With as much time as most moms spend in the kitchen feeding kids, it sure is nice to have something pretty to look at on the kitchen island or table. So we asked our crafty friends over at Signed Sealed Delivered to give us some ideas on how to make great fall centerpieces to use anywhere in your house. They even threw in some ideas for pretty holiday centerpieces, too. Enjoy!

Idea No. 1: Everyone has a crystal bowl or pretty glass dish in their cupboard. Fill the bowl with water and float some fall flowers, flower petals or floater candles on the surface of the water for a lovely glow.  Surround them with preserved fall leaves or small gourds or pumpkins.

Idea No. 2: Hollow out a pumpkin and place a potted mum inside for an inexpensive and colorful fall arrangement that works inside and out.

Idea No. 3: Place tea lights inside hollowed out vegetables, mini pumpkins, or fruits and set around the table for subtle illumination.

Idea No. 4: For seasonal table décor, place moss balls, pine cones, Easter eggs, or Christmas ornaments in a decorative bowl or footed decorative glass vases, depending on the season.

Idea No. 5: Fill wine glasses, martini glasses or footed candle holders with various seasonal candies and nestle a tea light in the candy. Candy corn, red hots, gum balls, jelly beans… anything goes!

Idea No. 6: Wrap a potted flower, like a mum or a geranium, with burlap and tie with rope or ribbon.

Idea No. 7: Wide mesh is one of our favorite ribbons right now. We love to open it up and run it down the center of any table and decorate for fall and holiday events.

Idea No. 8: If you are decorating for a child’s holiday event, start with a favorite toy (or a new one) that is tied with a beautiful fall or holiday bow. We love to theme even our holiday parties. Try filling a Tonka truck with candy for the boys and tea cups for the girls.

Idea No. 9: Let beautifully wrapped gifts become your centerpiece. Choose papers and ribbons that match the décor of the room or your holiday theme, and then wrap small, medium and a few larger boxes to make a statement. You might even fill each with a small gift and put a tag for each guest at the party to take with them when they depart.

Idea No. 10: Buy or grow a series of small evergreen trees and place them down your table’s center.  Add fresh greens, berries and pine cones directly onto the table to add a bit of nature to your holiday.

Don’t forget: Children love to help with the holidays. Let them create a series of holiday ornaments and décor with paper, Styrofoam, glitter, ribbon and add them to a fabric, mesh or ribbon covered center.  No other table will look as special as yours and the kids will love to see their work.

Our thanks to the ladies of Signed Sealed Delivered for all the great ideas you see listed above. If you are short on the time or energy to create your own centerpiece this fall, you could always swing by Signed Sealed Delivered and take home something you really love. The store’s designers, Terri, Shirley and Barbara, have become well-known for their gorgeous centerpieces and arrangements that have a real “wow” factor. They can even design arrangements specifically for your event, home decor, colors, etc. (The centerpieces you see pictured in this post are available at Signed Sealed Delivered, too.) For more info, click here to see their website or call the store at 479-271-7747.

A few months ago, I had this decorating dilemma. In my family room, there is a weird space between the top of my bookshelves and the ceiling. It needed something, but I wasn’t sure what that “something” was. I spent a few months browsing at different stores for framed artwork that would be exactly the right size but nothing fit just right. Then this idea finally hit me. Since it is our family room, I decided to fill the space with oversized snapshots of the kids because I didn’t want anything too formal. I picked out four of my favorites, put them on a disc and took them to my go-to framer, Scott McGowen of Scott Frame & Art, who has been framing my kids’ photos since his shop opened in 2007.

The cool part: Instead of traditional framing, Scott suggested that we print the photos onto canvas and stretch them across a wooden frame to give it a gallery look, which is exactly what I wanted. He “gallery wrapped” the sides of the photos so that you don’t see any blank edges.

What I love about this idea is that I don’t get any glare off of glass because there isn’t any. And I don’t have to climb the bookshelves to dust frames because there aren’t any. But I still get great artwork (my kids’ faces) to fill the space that I needed to fill. (I told Scott what the dimensions of my space were and he helped me figure out how large each photo should be in order to balance the space.)

By the way, that white thing between the photos is a surround sound speaker that my husband insists must stay in this exact spot. Yes, I hate it. But messing around with a man’s surround sound system is not a good idea for maintaining a healthy marriage. So… the speaker stays.

I did this little home decor project last fall, so I used some photos of my kids playing in the leaves in our yard. Considering how expensive framed artwork can sometimes be, this project was very budget-friendly. It’s affordable enough for me to keep changing out the photos every year with new shots as the kids grow. (To print one photo on a 16 by 20 inch canvas and gallery wrap the edges, the cost is about $54.)

People who have stopped by for a visit have noticed my little gallery of kid photos above the bookshelves and remarked on how much they like that idea. So I thought I’d pass it along to my fellow photo-loving mamas. If you don’t have snapshots you want to use, you could easily do this same idea with some of your kids’ artwork from school and hang it in their rooms, a hallway or a play area.

Call Scott at Scott Frame & Art if you have questions about how to pull this off. He and his staff are full of good ideas on how to display just about anything. Visit them online by clicking here or call the shop at 479-696-8263.